Product Description

The BlackBerry Bold 9780 weighs 4.2 ounces and measures 4.3 x 2.4 x 0.6 inches. Its 1500 mAh lithium-ion battery is rated at up to 6 hours of talk time, and up to 408 hours (17 days) of standby time. GSM/GPRS/EDGE frequencies: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, 3G (UMTS) frequencies: 2100/1900/850/800 MHz or 2100/1700/900 MHz, depending on the cellphone version.

What's in the box

Manual

Headphones

Product information

Product Dimensions

4.29 x 0.55 x 2.36 inches

Item Weight

4.3 ounces

ASIN

B004343W5E

Item model number

RCN72UW

Batteries

1 Lithium Ion batteries required.

Customer Reviews

4.1 829 ratings

4.1 out of 5 stars

Is Discontinued By Manufacturer

Yes

OS

rim_blackberry

RAM

512 MB

Wireless communication technologies

Bluetooth, Cellular, Wi-Fi

Connectivity technologies

Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, USB

Special features

bluetooth-enabled, smartphone, camera, quad-band

Other display features

Wireless

Human Interface Input

Keyboard

Other camera features

Rear, Front

Audio Jack

3.5 mm

Form Factor

Bar

Color

Black

Phone Talk Time

360 minutes

Phone Standby Time (with data)

528 hours

Whats in the box

Headphones, Manual

Manufacturer

BlackBerry

Date First Available

October 27, 2010

Memory Storage Capacity

32 GB

Standing screen display size

2.4 Inches

Battery Capacity

1500 Milliamp Hours

Weight

4.32 ounces

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Customer reviews

4.1 out of 5

829 global ratings

How customer reviews and ratings work

Customers say

Customers have negative opinions about the battery life of the cellular phone. For example, they mention it has serious problems with the battery, it charges but won't hold charge, and the phone goes dead after two weeks of use. Opinions are mixed on quality, performance, and condition.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

139 customers mention91 positive48 negative

Customers are mixed about the quality of the cellular phone. Some mention that it works well, while others say that it was defective and the motherboard was defective.

"...Everything works perfectly...." Read more

"...The phone blanked out while I was using it and would not turn on, when it did turn on the battery was on red...." Read more

"...On both phones, the web and Accuweather work fine, but BlackBerry World does not work on the EDGE (the 9780)...." Read more

"...I gave this 5 stars as the phone is great and the customer support of Light Box did an amazing job to get my refund back...." Read more

25 customers mention8 positive17 negative

Customers are mixed about the performance of the cellular phone. Some mention that it's pretty fast, has an excellent time delivery, and has a fast connection to wifi and all social networks. However, others say that it doesn't work very well, has faulty keyboards, and the band does not work correctly. Some customers also report that the phone stopped working after six months.

"...everything about the phone except for the fact that it was not able to run on 3G speeds. All the time I used it was only getting 2G speeds...." Read more

"...Was informed that many of the functions on the phone were disabled, because it was meant for a business person...." Read more

"...been improved, details in hardware are also improved, and the processor is as fast or even better than the Torch 9800 !..." Read more

"...with this article, my phone only work for 5 month ago; then, the bb doest'n working; all the time was shutt off; and i think that it's not a product..." Read more

20 customers mention7 positive13 negative

Customers are mixed about the condition of the cellular phone. Some mention that it was brand new, while others say that it is refurbished and was broken in few days. Some customers also report that the keypad does not work and the screen was damaged.

"...So, I knew the phone was tempered with, and not entirely new. However, it still works and serves." Read more

"I just got the phone today! Blackberry 9780 Unlocked! It appears new! I put my sim card from by 9810 Torch seems to work fine!..." Read more

"...: NEW, YESTERDAY JANUARE TWENTY ONE 21 RECEIVED THE PRODUCT AND IT DONT WAS NEW, IT IS USED DID NOT BRING YOUR ORIGINAL COMPONENTS AS THE WHITE BOX..." Read more

"...box, looks good, when I opened the box turned out that the battery was scratched, but works perfectly should not be scratched because it was within..." Read more

32 customers mention6 positive26 negative

Customers have serious problems with the battery of the cellular phone. They say that it charges but won't hold charge, and the phone went dead after two weeks of use. Some customers also mention that the phone reboots every time and that the battery is damaged. The phone overheats easily and shuts down even when fully charged.

"...The product arrived at the right time and unlocked, but the battery was damaged, appeared to make it load a red X symbol on the battery, take it to..." Read more

"...used the phone because i needed i one had it not been for the unusable battery, but i refuse to buy one when one should have been provided with my "..." Read more

"This cell phone turned off automatically when I was installing it, after that, the red light flashes for a while. Then, it has been dead...." Read more

"...The battery was almost fully charged when it went blank. My 8520 battery life is poor which was one the reasons I wanted a change but this is the..." Read more

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Top reviews from the United States

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J. Zayas

Very happy customer

Reviewed in the United States on April 20, 2011

Verified Purchase

I bought this phone with the risk it would not work on my country.

I live in Costa Rica; basically for GSM the band our provider uses is 1800 and for G3 is 850.

When the phone arrived, I went immediately to one of my provider's offices to have the Blackberry services enabled. Everything works perfectly.

Yes, to be able to configure your mail, twitter, facebook, blackberry messenger, and all the rest of the services the phone has, you need to enable the blackberry services with your provider (yes, you need to pay).

I am not too informed about band systems for phones but since it worked here, I would assume it works with GSM 850/900/1800/1900MHz and HDSPA (3G) 2100MHz/1900MHz/850MHz.

I read on the reviews this was the T-Mobile version. However, not sure if the person who posted that was confused with this one http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004DESF3I/ref=s9_simh_gw_p107_d0_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=1YJQ1JV4KQGZ0B3NR4DR&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938631&pf_rd_i=507846 but as of my experience, this IS NOT the T-Mobile one.

Hope this information helps.

Regards.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Virginia Romay

EXCELLENT - EXCELENTE - (VENEZUELA)

Reviewed in the United States on January 3, 2012

Verified Purchase

I bought this phone in april 2011 to amazon.com directly. The phone came with all the specifications, earphones, charger, battery, etc, it came without any brand on it, so it can be used in any cellphone company for the 3G(Important in LatinAmerica). Also it came with a memory card of 2GB, it did not gave me any problems.
At first I was going to buy it to another seller, but then I wrote and asked them if the cellphone would work on any band for the 3G, and they told me they didn't guarantee it, so I decided to buy it directly from amazon.com and it was the best choice I could ever done!
Unfortunally I got stoled like 4 moths after I bought it, so I'm missing it, right now it is more expensive than it was when I bought it, so I hope that the price will go lower this month so I can buy it again :)

------

Compre este telefono en abril de 2011 directamente a amazon.com. El telefono vino con todas las especificaciones, (audifonos, cargador, bateria, etc), vino sin ninguna marca en el, es decir que puede utilizarse en cualquier compañia telefonica para el 3G (lo cual es importante en Lanioamerica). Ademas vino con una tarjeta de memoria de 2GB (lo cual no especifica), el telefono nunca me dio ningun problema.
AL principio iba a comprarlo a otro vendedor, pero luego les escribi y les pregunte si el telefono funcionaría en cualquier banda de 3G, y me respondieron diciendo que no me lo garantizaban, así que decidi comprarlo directamente a amazon.com por un review que lei aqui mismo y fue la mejor elección que pude haber hecho!
Desafortunadamente me robaron 4 meses despues de haber comprado el telefono, asi que me hace falta.. En este momento esta mucho mas costoso que cuando lo compre, asi que espero que el precio vaya a bajar para poder comprarlo de nuevo :)

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

nobody

AT&T 9700 vs 9780

Reviewed in the United States on July 12, 2015

Verified Purchase

I bought my AT&T 9700 when it first came out years ago, got it unlocked after two years. I tried Android & Windowsphone, but I kept going back to my 9700 because it fits my medium hands very nicely.

My AT&T 9700 has 3G bands 1, 2, 5, & 6, and my 9780 has 3G bands 1, 4, & 8. I'm currently subscribed to T-Mobile. Where I live, the cell signal is 3 bars if I'm near the window. My 9780 works a little better. At a brother's house, the cell signal is a strong 5 bars. My AT&T 9700 shows 3G; my 9780 shows EDGE. On both phones, the web and Accuweather work fine, but BlackBerry World does not work on the EDGE (the 9780). Because my 9780 works better at home and I don't need BBRY World, I switched permanently to my 9780. My AT&T 9700 will function as backup. Both batteries are identical so I don't need a new battery to replace the very old 9700 battery.

I will use this opportunity to tell BlackBerry, Amazon, and all salesmen: A smartphone is worthless if WiFi is required to become fully functional. In other words, a smartphone needs to be fully functional on the cell carrier's network.

5 people found this helpful

Helpful

Marlon E Aleman

Recomendado

Reviewed in the United States on July 20, 2012

Verified Purchase

Compre este celular para traerlo al Ecuador al principio empece a tener problemas con el celular ya con 2 teclas pero el vendedor se comunico conmigo diciéndome cual era mi inconformidad entiendo que el celular venia defectuoso de fabrica ya que el vendedor no tiene la culpa pues al no poder regresar el celular a USA ellos me ofrecieron repararlo en mi país la cual la satisfacción de ellos porque yo quedara satisfecho como comprador era su prioridad me gusto mucho que se comunicaran conmigo para preguntarme cual era el problema lo recomiendo al vendedor muy amable y muy comprensivo.

Buy this phone to bring it to Ecuador at the beginning I started to have problems with the phone and with 2 keys but the seller contacted me telling me what my dissent understand that the phone came factory defective because the seller is not at fault for failing to to return the phone to USA repair they offered me in my country that meeting them will be satisfied because I was his priority as a buyer I like to communicate much to me to ask what was the problem I recommend the seller very friendly and very understanding .

Atentamente

Marlon E Aleman
Ingeniero En Sistemas

One person found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

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Potato

Idek

Reviewed in Canada on February 1, 2021

Verified Purchase

Yezzir la condition est perfect 👌🏻👌🏻👌🏻

berry

bello

Reviewed in Italy on February 26, 2020

Verified Purchase

Per chi vuole un telefono, spedire mail, anche foto (buona la qualta`se si scaricano sul PC). Il cursore ottico e` molto buono, come un touchscreen, col vantaggio che appena tocchi lo schermo, non ti partono 600 comandi.

2 people found this helpful

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Joaquín

Es lo esperado de este modelo de Blackberry

Reviewed in Spain on January 25, 2019

Verified Purchase

Es lo esperado de este modelo de Blackberry

One person found this helpful

Translate review to English

FAN

très bon expérience

Reviewed in France on April 8, 2013

Verified Purchase

très bon état sur cet prix ,le portable est très bien par le poche: bon apparence ,bon écran ,seulement un peu de usure de clavier.
L'outils utilisateur ,le consigne ,usb, le chargeur avec 4 type de fiche , l'écouteur contenu et un poche tout neuf .
livraison rapide de plus.
je suis satisfait ,merci bcp.

4 people found this helpful

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bikerchris

If you don't want your phone to control you, this is the phone for you

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 21, 2011

Verified Purchase

For specifications, go here:

[...]

I never like those reviews that start off with personal information and are only interjected with anything useful, so I'll just get the relevant bit out the way (but if you're interested, there are some notes at the bottom):

My previous phones (most recent first): HTC Magic, Nokia N95, Something else

Going from touch screen to `old fashioned keypad' is a little odd these days, but I did it for two simple reasons:

- Money
- Battery life

The Blackberry 9780 was £300 cash (compared to a £600'ish iPhone4 32GB) and so far the battery shows 55% remaining, 48 hours after being charged for the first time. This is during the `honeymoon period' where you're constantly lighting the screen up and seeing what you can change next. It is the most battery consuming point of a phone ownership, so this is impressive.

IN THE BOX:

The Phone (+battery, rear cover)
Sleeve
headphones
USB PC connector cable (Can also charge the phone)
Charger (with euro/uk adaptor)
CD with Blackberry connectivity software (also available as a 120MB download)
MicroSD Memory Card (2GB)

UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE

That's the first thing that came to mind, partly because the phone could barely do anything email-wise (connecting to Gmail for example), must have been in Amazon storage for some time! So install the software, connect the phone and follow the update instructions....BE PREPARED FOR A LONG LONG WAIT, well in excess of an hour (not based on slow broadband/internet speeds).

Next, if you previously didn't have a Blackberry, you must contact your network provider (Vodafone, Orange, o2, etc.) because you may have to pay an additional fee per month for "Blackberry Service". For me on Vodafone, this was £5 per month and Three's monthly fee is the same. Not doing so, means that email, text and the mobile internet connection probably won't work (although voice calls will).

First impressions, you can't help but have concerns over the KEYBOARD size, and the individual size of the keys. The keyboard is a Qwerty layout and although the buttons are small, it's not too difficult to type at a reasonable speed. As I'm new to physical buttons it is taking me a while, having had a non-responsive touchscreen for nearly two years. I haven't got especially large hands, but the only way I can see how to use the keyboard is with finger nails, although this isn't too difficult to get used to and occasionally I use the flat of my thumbs, which surprisingly hit the correct key even though I cover 6 keys at the time of pressing. In fairness, the keys on the HTC were only slightly bigger, but with the use of clever predictive text, it would know when you'd mis-keyed and suggest the correct word. The 9780 does the same thing, with only a minor flaw in that you have to press the main button to accept a suggested word, whereas the space bar on the HTC combines an `accept' confirmation as well as creating a space (very clever).

The 9780 has an `alt' key for selecting the symbols on each key (or numbers) which you press once for single selection or, for instance if you wish to tap a phone number into an email, you can press and hold and continue pressing the numbers. There is also an upper/lower case button and a `sym' button for additional symbols. The latter has been well thought out because the screen is filled with symbols when you press it, each symbol has a corresponding shortcut letter (as well as manual scroll selection). For instance if you wish to write "£20" you would press `sym' then `v' and the pound sign would appear, you would then press and hold `alt' and press `2' and `0'.

NAVIGATION feels very smooth, screen transitions are doubly so, you really feel like you're gliding about with the "optical trackpad". This works in much the same way as a laptop trackpad, with the addition that an increase in finger movement, increases scroll speed (I hope that makes sense?). It has both horizontal and vertical sensitivity adjustments available, and the option to audibly roll, the latter makes the phone `ticks' when you scroll around - not good for discrete use at work, in a library, or in the cinema.

BUTTONS are a nice touch on the 9780, with fully customisable shortcuts (two in total) on either side of the phone (They activate the contacts and camera in my setup for instance). They are firm enough not to be accidentally pressed, the same goes for the volume control on the top right edge. There are two top mounted buttons for muting an incoming call and for enabling the keylock.

SHORTCUTS are very useful, for instance you can press and hold the # to change the sound profile from silent to loud. This is just one of the shortcuts, you can configure speed-dial buttons, so when I want to call Darren, I press and hold `D' as soon as I remove it from the holster/sleeve. There are probably many more shortcuts that I've yet to find.

Optional CHANGES to some settings are really well thought out. For instance you can disable the Enter key from being a button that sends text messages, in case you do hit it from time to time and send a partial message.

The SLEEVE is quite clever (although more likely sensors on the phone), quite nicely made and most importantly puts the keylock on as soon as you slip it in. Withdraw it and the keylock turns off straight away and the screen comes on `ready for action'.

TEXT SIZE is small, there's no doubt about that. You can change it, but due to the high clarity/resolution of the screen there's not much need to do so. But that's based on my fairly good eye sight.

The LIGHT SENSOR is a nice touch, the screen adjusts it's brightness based on ambient light. So if the sun is out, the screen is at maximum brightness. If you're in bed with the lights out, the screen dims so as not to burn your retinas.

BOOTING/STARTING UP is very slow, taking over a minute and a half to be usable. My logical side accepts that this is the price you pay for a reliable phone, that's quick to use once it's up and running, etc. This relates to when you've removed the battery or installed software, if you select to "turn off" in the menu, it starts up again as if it was never off (i.e. within a second).

GOOGLEMAIL/GMAIL INTEGRATION - EMAILS

This is not a fun topic to talk about, but it must be done. Before any updates the 9780 would not accept any non-enterprise email configuration, such as Gmail. Afterwards it worked quite happily and provided options such as labelling, archiving, marking as spam etc. But one thing it would not do is load emails that were received prior to the Blackberry setup. This is a shame, and part of the reason we have emails is `just in case' we need information in `that' email we received a few months ago - could be flight/check-in details for example. As a work around I installed the Gmail App ([...]) that provides full functionality. As part of the work around I disabled notification as I use the Blackberry Push program for that as it's quicker (Gmail App is not instant and checks for new email every 5 to 20minutes).

Another issue I've just noticed is that the push mail account does not `backwards' update with Gmail. For example: log into webmail via a computer web browser and archive/delete messages and the changes won't be reflected on the blackberry. I tried to `Reconcile Now' as per the option in the pop-up menu, but to no avail. So email changes are reflected FROM Blackberry TO Computer Browser, but not vice versa. Something I hope to live with until they resolve it.

This may or may not inconvenience you, but I noticed an oddity this morning. Last night I typed a draft email on my computer, via the browser based version of Gmail. I had intended to double check it this morning and then send it via the phone (assuming that either push mail or the Gmail App would sync draft responses or new drafts). It did not, the the irony that my draft response was in there...somewhere, as the conversation count was "(2)" on the email that had filled out a draft response. Just a minor niggle really, but it may make a difference to you.

GOOGLEMAIL/GMAIL INTEGRATION - CONTACTS

Contacts are synchronised perfectly well, no trouble there. (early days though, I will update this review if needed)

GOOGLEMAIL/GMAIL INTEGRATION - CALENDAR

Calendar items are synchronised perfectly well, no trouble there (again, early days, I will update this review if needed)

CABLE CONNECTION is a `bespoke Blackberry' unfortunately. I do wish they had gone the route of my original HTC Magic, that used a very standard and universal `mini USB'. Many times I found myself round a friends house in need of charging my phone, and I could easily use their Play Station 3 cable, or a camera cable in a spare drawer. Now if I want to transfer bulk files or give the phone a top up charge, I have to remember the cable.

MEMORY CARD as already mentioned is 2GB. I do feel this a little small for this day and age, although you can buy a 32GB MicroSD card for between £25-70 on ebay, or £50 from genuine online retailers such as:
[...])

The memory card can be installed by anyone with hands and eyes, you don't need to remove the battery or sim to do it, neither do you need tools.

CAMERA and VIDEO are surprising good quality, although they should be at 5MP and 640x480 respectively. The `video light' is incredibly bright and unless you were born on the sun, the average person can't have it shine in their face at any less than 1 metre. On a slightly overcast day, pictures can look a little grainy when transferred to PC, but otherwise they are more than acceptable. The camera starts up within 3 seconds, combined with the side button dedicates to photos, and you can almost `never miss a shot' (sorry for sounding like an advert!).

TAKING NOTES can be done with the `memopad' program, this can be sync'd with many programs including Outlook, or a CSV file I believe.

APP's generally cost a little money, compared to Android for instance which are largely free (initially at least). There are very few `free trials' or teasers that offer a stripped down version of what you want.

The COMPUTER SOFTWARE allows you to backup/restore your device and I would confidently say it's easier to use/more reliable than Nokia's attempts from a few years ago. Bluetooth can be used for wirelessly backing up I believe, with this software you can also organise sync'd files (music, docs, pictures) and applications (install and un-install). I found it very useful to remove duplicate contacts/calendar items when I accidentally set-up my google account twice.

MAPPING - It's nice to know where you are sometimes, and the Blackberry comes with Mapping software (and GPS). I have to admit, I'm not too impressed with rendering time of maps and will be downloading google maps soon. The HTC Magic did one thing well, and that was mapping and directions (although it would inconveniently need a restart quite often, near the end of it's life).

CONCLUSION - It's going to take a while to get used to a small screen (just over half the size of a big touchscreen phone like the HTC Desire/iPhone), but I'm already enjoying the lack of need to charge it. I can buy a spare battery if I want to (unlike the iPhone) and that would give me well over a week of medium use if needed. There are tiny details that makes you think the designers don't keep too up-to-date, such as the phone memory being in Bytes units. That was fine 5 or 10 years ago, but now the phone shows I have 224,000,000,000 Bytes, really it should be in MB (224MB's) or GB (0.224GB). A silly observation, but had someone at Blackberry been given the phone for a week, they could have resolved minor issues such as this.

I do wonder how I'm going to deal with the Gmail `one way' issue, but with any luck they will resolve this.

Finally, I received and fully charged this phone on Tuesday early afternoon. It's now Friday afternoon and it's showing 15% battery remaining - THAT is why I changed phones.

SO NOW, FOR THE PERSONAL BLURB I WARNED YOU ABOUT!

I got bored of being so heavily dependant on charging my HTC phone every night, so it was time for a change. I must admit that I hadn't considered a Blackberry, until a friend asked me for advice (I'm slightly known as a biker/geek). They said, "I don't want; a phone for playing games, may be the occasional picture. I DO want ; good battery life, texting, emailing, phoning and may be the social rubbish we're all pressured to do in a sheep-like manor".

As I was thinking of a new phone anyway and had done plenty of research (due to being off work because of a leg operation), I initially suggested either an iPhone, HTC or even one of the turnaround companies such as Samsung or Sony-Ericsson. The latter have been making some very good iPhone wannabees at a reasonable price, such as the Samsung Galaxy S II (A listed with [...]) . Surprise surprise, they had an iPhone (3rd Gen) and were sick of being dependant on that electricity stuff for charging it...every night. I said the iPhone 4 was better, but they weren't convinced that it was `better enough'. Then I suggested a Blackberry. A few moments later I thought, "hang on, I'm in the same boat as them and want exactly the same things!".

So now I'm the partially proud owner of a 9780, a non-touch screen phone - my first for 2 years. Why? Good question - it's mainly because of the battery thing as already mentioned, also because of price, as I was paying £300 cash to Amazon (via a 0% credit card!). I was a click away from buying an iPhone 4 32GB for £600'ish a number of times, but my wallet cried out, "why man! why!?!?". It wasn't that important to have the top phone of the current decade, or to be content to charge it every day (or every other day). More to the point - SIX HUNDRED POUNDS, anyone reading this can probably think of another use of that kind of money, or at least half of it, as in my case. £300 gets a flight away for a weekend, or pays for petrol for a month or two, or have several very enjoyable drunken evenings with friends. Of course there will be some iPhone `wanters' that don't know the concept of money yet, as they're at school - that wonderful marketing machine will force their parents to buy it for them. How sweet of it, once there was a time when just one parent can work, but now both have to to keep up with advertised indulgence....sorry, I'm off topic.

So that's the phone taken care of, but you may wonder why I bought the phone instead of tying myself to a 2 year contract (yet again). Well, here's the options my friend:

A) Buy a phone for £300, get a "SIM Only contract" for 12 months (300mins, 3000 texts, +internet), at £10 per month = in total costing 300 + (24 x 10 = 240) = £540

B) Get a contract for £30 per month for a £300 phone plus the type of tarrif as above'ish = 30 x 24 = £720.

OK, so only £180 saving, but out of interest, if your phone goes pop during that 2nd year, they are not going to give you another phone. Also the warranty on your phone is only for the 1st year, so unless you have phone insurance of some kind, in both cases you'll have to buy a new phone. To be honest, I mainly don't like being in a contract for 2 years, especially if there's no actually financial benefit. Even in the best case you can save £80, when really, as you're effectively investing in that mobile network for 2 years, they should give us more surely?

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BlackBerry Bold 9780 Unlocked Cell Phone with Full QWERTY Keyboard, 5 MP Camera, Wi-Fi, 3G, Music/Video Playback, Bluetooth v2.1, and GPS (Black)

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